Opposable Thumbs —

“For the swarm!” Inside the world of professional StarCraft players

First in Korea and now in the US, StarCraft players have gone pro. Ars attends …

Meeting the players

Opportunities to see top players abound at MLG, but there are relatively few good moments to meet and talk with them. Players are often either playing, being interviewed after a game, or moving quickly from match to match. Sometimes, however, you get lucky. One of my favorite players, Kevin "qxc" Riley, was suddenly standing next to me near the whiteboard where match results were being posted. He had brought his famous cardboard sign saying, "I'm qxc. You've probably heard of me," which he had first made ironically back when no one knew who he was.

That situation changed recently when qxc went to Korea with the foreign team FXOpen and achieved a minor miracle: he all-killed (defeated four players in a row to win the match) one of the best Korean teams, finishing his amazing run by beating none other than MVP. He managed this feat—something only done once before by a foreign StarCraft player... eight years ago—while on summer break from university.

qxc trying out his most epic poses

With his new-found celebrity, qxc seemed happier than a kid in a candy store. He signed autographs, posed for funny pictures, and even gave his now-famous sign to a fan. At the tournament, he did well, coming all the way through the Open Bracket to get placed into Pool Play, but he lost a close series to Rain and did not make the quarterfinals.

qxc playing on the Main Stage

I also caught a glimpse of Geoff "iNcontrol" Robinson, a former WCG USA champion in Brood War who came in fourth in MLG Dallas. iNcontrol is not like the stereotypical game-playing nerd; he's a powerlifter who can bench press 435 pounds and has a great sense of humor. His girlfriend competed in the Miss USA competition.

He sat down a few seats away from me in the media/VIP/player spectator section. I turned to the person next to me and said, "I'm trying to work up the courage say hello to iNcontrol."

"I wouldn't," my neighbor advised. "He looks angry." I lost my nerve.

iNcontrol would later showcase his humor during his match against Boxer, typing in the chat: "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my Idra [His fellow teammate Greg "Idra" Fields, whom Boxer had destroyed 2-0]. Prepare to die." Boxer proceeded to dismantle iNcontrol as well.

Players weren't the only celebrities at the event. Also present was Sean "Day[9]" Plott, a former Brood War player who started his "Day[9] Daily" webcasts shortly before StarCraft II was released; he became the top English StarCraft commentator outside of Korea (his brother, Nick "Tasteless" Plott, holds down the fort in the Korea for the GSL tournaments). Day[9] took a short break from his marathon commentating sessions to wander around the crowd and immediately had a swarm of fans buzzing around him.

He signed autographs and took pictures with fans. It took an MLG staff member to drag him back to the casting booth, but Day[9] promised he would be back later for an official signing session with a proper line; that line extended the entire length of the convention center. (Read our interview with a StarCraft commentator.)

Day[9] surrounded by adoring fans

Igniting the blue flame

One unit in Brood War caused more excitement than any other: the Protoss reaver. The reaver was slow, like a giant mechanical slug lumbering across the battlefield, but when placed in a fast-moving shuttle it could be dropped on an unsuspecting opponent's mineral line. There it would fire its charges—"scarabs"— at the defenseless workers. The scarabs, however, had a flaw: their primitive pathing AI would sometimes glitch, and instead of an exciting explosion, the scarab would wander off like a wayward child, running out of energy and bursting like a soap bubble with no damage done whatsoever. It was in fact the unpredictability of the reaver that caused Boxer to switch from Protoss to Terran early in his gaming history. Despite the general consensus at the time that Terran was the weakest of the three StarCraft races, Boxer found ways to micromanage his more fragile units to lead him to decisive victories.

Many Brood War purists insist that the game's sequel does not have the same intensely exciting and unpredictable combat of the original. For one unit in StarCraft II at least, the purists are wrong. The Hellion is a light attack vehicle, a bit like a racing version of a dune buggy equipped with a flame thrower as its primary weapon. An upgrade, the "Infernal Pre-Ignitor," turns the red flames blue and significantly increases their damage. The blue flame Hellion was the star of this MLG.

Commentators discuss the meaning of blue flames while the crowd eagerly anticipates the next game

The blue flame Hellion is so exciting to watch because it deals damage in a very thin line. If only one unit is caught in the flame, it will receive only moderate damage. But if a player sees Hellions in their mineral lines and panics, moving all their workers away at once, sometimes the workers will panic as well and line up in a row like a kindergarten class. If the attacking player has several Hellions lined up precisely behind them, the results can be devastating.

Prior to this MLG, it was thought that blue-flame Hellions were good units to make at the start of the game in the hope of dealing some minor economic damage early on by killing an opponent's workers. In mid-game, however, they would be replaced by sturdier units such as tanks. However, a new type of play recently surfaced in Korea and was showcased for the first time in Anaheim. The Terran player would continue to make blue flame Hellions and then augment them with groups of marines, using multiple drop ships to ferry the Hellions into multiple bases simultaneously.

This new style was a bigger gamble—what if all that money invested into Hellions was wasted?—but the potential rewards were far greater. Against Zerg it was particularly effective. Zerg players had been used to building a small group of roaches to deflect the Hellions, but they were unprepared for an endless wave of fire-breathing dune buggies that kept coming throughout the game.

This sort of shift in the balance of power between the three races (Terran, Zerg, and Protoss) also happened back in Brood War. However, back then it could take months or even years for someone to come up with a clever new strategy that, for a time at least, seemed impossible to counter. Players would jealously guard the replay files for their practice games so as not to expose their secrets.

In StarCraft II, it's hard to keep secrets for long. So many more tournaments take place all over the world now, and the best players are able to study absolutely everyone via the Internet. A new build order might appear on the European servers one week, get refined and honed to perfection on the Korean servers the next, and be unleashed on unsuspecting North Americans in a tournament a week later.